[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 239 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 239
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that offshore wind
projects along the Atlantic coast require more comprehensive
investigations examining the impact to the environment, relevant
maritime industries, and national defense before being leased or
constructed.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 21, 2023
Mr. Van Drew (for himself, Mr. Harris, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr.
Perry, and Mr. D'Esposito) submitted the following resolution; which
was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that offshore wind
projects along the Atlantic coast require more comprehensive
investigations examining the impact to the environment, relevant
maritime industries, and national defense before being leased or
constructed.
Whereas the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), under the direction of the
Department of the Interior, has as of March 2023 leased 1,753,818 acres
of offshore land for wind development and is planning on leasing another
1,700,000 acres off the Central Atlantic coast and additional leases off
the Northern Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Maine;
Whereas offshore wind turbines are over 900 feet tall, 600 feet higher than
standard onshore wind turbines;
Whereas the interarray and offshore export connection cables between wind farms
and onshore energy grids will require the dredging of hundreds of miles
of ocean floor;
Whereas lease areas sit along known migration routes and foraging areas of North
Atlantic right whales, humpback whales, and economically important
commercial and recreational fish species;
Whereas disturbances to right whale foraging areas could have population-level
effects on the already endangered and stressed species;
Whereas, between December 2022 and March 2023, 23 dead whales have washed ashore
on the East Coast, including on the shores of Lido Beach on Long Island,
New York, the North Brigantine Natural Area in Brigantine, New Jersey,
and the shores of Virginia Beach, Virginia;
Whereas the BOEM and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
have an unclear process for determining all contributing causes of death
of whales through necropsies;
Whereas NOAA lacks a mechanism to oversee and enforce the parameters of its
incidental harassment authorizations of marine mammals issued to
offshore wind companies;
Whereas areas leased as of March 2023 for offshore wind turbines sit along
established fishing grounds that generate 40 percent of the United
States fisheries $4,800,000,000 annual economic output, and provides
food for millions of Americans;
Whereas commercial vessel traffic in the Atlantic region, particularly in Coast
Guard Districts 1, 5, and 7, is vital to the United States economy in
that it serves major East Coast ports by the safe, reliable, and energy-
efficient transportation of dry and liquid cargos;
Whereas the rerouting of such traffic to accommodate wind lease sites is
inefficient and poses a potential risk to the safety of vessel traffic
and marine species;
Whereas BOEM, in a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Ocean Wind
1 lease sale stated that the presence of offshore wind turbine
structures and related radar interference could result in delays within
or approaching ports, increase navigational complexity, and create
detours to offshore travel or port approaches;
Whereas requests from maritime stakeholders to increase the width of transit
lanes to a minimum of 2 nautical miles to ensure safer transit through
wind farms have been disregarded;
Whereas a proposed alternative turbine layout with wider transit lanes was
rejected in a record of decision (ROD) by the BOEM for the Vineyard Wind
1 offshore wind project in part due to potential delays to the project
that would be inconsistent with timelines set in President Biden's
Executive Order 14008;
Whereas such ROD stated that ``the combination of the technical complexities and
project delay would preclude [Vineyard Wind 1's] ability to meet the
current contractual obligations with Massachusetts distribution
companies'';
Whereas the contractual obligation refers to a power purchase agreement between
Vineyard Wind 1 and the State of Massachusetts, which was signed 2 years
prior to the ROD, and required 800 megawatts of energy output;
Whereas the required energy output prevents serious consideration of alternative
requests for wind farm layout and number of turbines installed;
Whereas BOEM, in a draft EIS for the Ocean Wind 1 lease sale off the coast of
New Jersey, determined that the proposed wind turbine structures would
increase the risk of vessel collisions, allisions, and spills which
could result in personal injury or loss of life;
Whereas the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine determined
that wind turbine generator interference on marine vessel radar will
lead to unforeseen complications and degraded performance, causing loss
of radar contact that is particularly consequential when conducting
search and rescue operations in and adjacent to offshore wind farms;
Whereas offshore wind farms will interfere with coastal high frequency radar
systems used for United States Coast Guard (USCG) search and rescue
operations;
Whereas existing port access route studies (PARS) related to offshore wind do
not properly examine potential radar interference and the impact on
navigation within and around wind farms;
Whereas the USCG in its Areas Offshore of Massachusetts and Rhode Island PARS
determined that the potential for offshore wind turbine interference
with marine radar is site specific and depends on factors including
turbine size, array layouts, number of turbines, construction materials,
and vessel types;
Whereas the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine determined
that wind turbine generator interference decreases the effectiveness of
marine vessel radar mounted on all vessel classes and that the sizes of
anticipated offshore wind farms across the United States Outer
Continental Shelf at the scale of anticipated deployment will exacerbate
this situation;
Whereas the potential safety and maritime supply chain impacts of navigational
and radar interference related to proposed offshore wind leases has not
been duly evaluated or mitigated;
Whereas the Department of Defense's Offshore Wind Mission Compatibility
Assessment ruled much of the offshore east coast a ``wind exclusion
zone'', for defense and defense training reasons;
Whereas, according to the Department of Defense, ARSR-4 primary long-range air
surveillance radars would be ``very susceptible'' to interference from
wind turbines, and that ``target tracking abilities decrease as turbine
number, size, and density increases'';
Whereas the Department of Defense acknowledged in May 2019 that noise generated
by offshore wind turbines disturbs acoustically sensitive environments
and may interfere with offensive- and defensive-based military sensors,
and that currently there are no Department of Defense-supported
unclassified studies that have been conducted regarding this topic; and
Whereas the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Wallops Flight
Facility stated in 2022 that offshore wind farms built within wind
exclusion zones could potentially be flight obstructions, be impacted by
falling debris from launches, and would impact the facility's ability to
accept and expand new technologies: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives
that--
(1) the Atlantic coast offshore wind leases represent a
transformative industrialization of vital environmental and
maritime resources of the United States;
(2) the potential impacts of this industrialization have
not been duly evaluated or mitigated by the responsible Federal
agencies;
(3) Congress should--
(A) conduct investigations to determine the true
impacts of offshore wind development; and
(B) use the findings of such investigations to
develop legislation to mitigate potential negative
environmental or economic impacts of offshore wind
development; and
(4) leasing and construction of offshore wind farms along
the Atlantic coast should be put under immediate moratorium
until these investigations and findings are presented to
Congress and the public.
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